A Journey through Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas,
conducted by Ranzo

23 December 2011

#79-80 Drunken Sailor (series)

Today's most famous chanty of them all?

I am fond of saying that this chanty is unlike 99.5% of chanties (or something like that). What I mean is, there are just 2-3 “stamp and go” chanties that seem to be documented…and those out of several hundred chanties. So in that respect, though “Drunken Sailor” is one of the best known today (or, known by the most people), it does not represent the chanty genre very well. Much of what one might say about the chanty genre—formally, culturally, historically—does not apply here. And yet it does qualify as a chanty, so it gets lumped in.

A big part of why it appears as an outlier is that it was a “stamp and go” or “walk-away” song. This evidently was a maneuver that was pretty uncommon during the era of what I call chanties (or “modern chanties,” when distinguishing). Indeed, according to the narrative of chanty development that I believe in, small crews on merchant vessels (as opposed to large crews on Navy vessels) were a catalyst for chanty development, and they also made the walk-away maneuver passé.

The tune of “Drunken Sailor”—again, quite dissimilar to other chanties’—is easy to imagine as a bagpipe march or a fiddle or fife tune. The latter instruments were used early on, in British vessels to coordinate labor, so the tune may have come into use, first.

“Drunken Sailor” is rarely mentioned in the 19th century; that does not surprise me. It does get mentioned more after the heyday of chanties, and I wonder if part of that is just continued familiarity with what is an appealing, catchy, and distinctive song. Let’s see. Certainly, after a point, our perception of how common it was got skewed by processes that have gone on since the end of the sailing era, generated through influential publications, recordings, revival performances, school textbooks, and so on. However, I am not going to deal so much with those, but rather stick to the older documentation.

The oldest dating for the song that my information suggests is 1827 or earlier—let’s say the 1820s. Eckstorm and Smyth, in Minstrelsy of Maine (1927), say that one of their grandmothers claimed to have heard it used during tacking (i.e. walking away with braces) on the Penobscot River “probably considerably over a hundred years ago.” The lyrics they offered were:

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?...

So early in the morning?

Put him in the long-boat and let him bail her;

Ay, ay, up she rises!

So, the dating is speculative. The first actual published mention, in the 19th century, is found in an account of an 1839/40 whaling voyage out of New London (CT) to the Pacific.

...But there are many songs in common use among seamen, of a very lively character, which though bereft of all sentiment and sense in many instances, are performed with very good effect when there is a long line of men hauling together. ...Sometimes they all sing together as I have endeavored to represent, although it must appear very tame without the attendant circumstances. One of the songs is as follows:—

The second reference of the 19th century comes in non-maritime, fiction literature, 1855. An anecdote is related containing a scene of a woman cook at a home who gets drunk, messes up the kitchen, and is found singing the following:

Davis and Tozer later included it in the 2nd edition (1890) of their collection. Why not in the first edition (1887), I wonder?

What to Do with a Drunken Sailor

What shall I do with a drunken sailor,

What shall I do with a drunken sailor,

What shall I do with a drunken sailor,

Early in the morning

[Cho.] Aye, aye, up she rises,

Oh, aye, up she rises,

Aye, aye, up she rises,

Early in the morning.

Hoist him up in a running bowline,

Put him polishing the brass work,

I’d stop his grog and keep him sober,

That’s what to do with the drunken sailor,

As usual, I don’t put much faith in the authenticity of Davis/Tozer’s verses after the first one or two. Notably, the melody here is in the major mode.

The literature is silent on this song for the rest of the century.

In 1906, after a slew of writers had been discussing chanties with nary a mention of the "walk-away" method, Masefield mentioned it in conjunction with this chanty.

Strictly speaking, there is a fourth variety of chanty, but it is a bastard variety, very seldom used. ...The bastard variety which I have just mentioned has no solo part. It is a runaway chorus, sung by all hands as they race along the deck with the rope. You hear it in tacking ship. It is a good song to sing when the main and mizzen yards are being swung simultaneously. All hands are at the braces straining taut, and at the order they burst into song and "run away with it," bringing the great yards round with a crash. It is a most cheery kind of chanty, and the excitement of the moment, and the sight of the great yards spinning round, and the noise of the stamping feet impress it on the mind. The favourite runaway chorus is:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor,

Early in the morning?

Way, hay, there she rises,

Way, hay, there she rises,

Way, hay, there she rises,

Early in the moming.

Chuck him in the long-boat till he gets sober,

Chuck him in the long-boat till he gets sober,

Chuck him in the long-boat till he gets sober,

Early in the morning.

Way, hay, there she rises,

Way, hay, there she rises,

Way, hay, there she rises,

Early in the morning.

It is sung to a vigorous tune in quick time. It is the custom among sailors to stamp with their feet at each "Way, hay." The effect is very spirited.

Later on in this work, A Sailor’s Garland, Masefield gives a version with more lyrics:

An English sailor of the 1860s-70s, Whall was next to give a version in his 1910 work. He was the first author, I believe, to publish the idea that this was only one of two chanties (along with “Cheerl’y Man”) that was allowed in the Royal Navy. He says that this was particularly the case “in revenue cutters and similar craft,” and, telling us something about the dislike of singing in Navy ships, says it was sung “sotto voce” in larger vessels. He adds that it was sung in the “Indiamen” merchant ships, too. The song went out of usage as a “stamp and go,” Whall says, when crews were reduced and it was no longer possible to "walk away" with anything. He notes that there were only two verses, as follows.

Hoorah! And up she rises [etc…] [chorus, appears before each verse]

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?...

Put him in the long-boat and make him bale her…

What shall we do with a drunken soldier…

Put him in the guardroom till he gets sober….

It was sung entirely in chorus, says Whall. The melody is in D Dorian with one chromatic neighbor tone, similar to the one back in Olmsted’s time.

“Drunken Sailor” was remembered by several other sailors, of the 1870s.

Harlow’s (1962), in reference to 1870s on the clipper ship Akbar out of Boston, is designated for hand over hand hauling—that is, for hoisting light sails (incl. topgallant) with 2-3 men on the halyard. Evidently though the “stamp and go” maneuver may have been rather obsolete, this fast chanty could be adapted to the hand over hand action. His verses go through different drunken people to which something should be done, e.g. skipper, chief mate, steward, doctor.

Dick Maitland, a sailor of the 1870s, adds another function. He was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1939, where he explained,

Now this is a song that's usually sang when men are walking away with the slack of a rope, generally when the iron ships are scrubbing their bottom. After an iron ship has been twelve months at sea, there's a quite a lot of barnacles and grass grows onto her bottom. And generally, in the calm latitudes, up in the horse latitudes in the North Atlantic Ocean, usually they rig up a purchase for to scrub the bottom. You can't do it when the ship is going over three mile an hour, but less than that, of course, you can do so. But it all means a considerable walking, not much labor, but all walking. And they have a song called 'The Drunken Sailor' that comes in for that.

So, it seems to have lived on in iron ships—perhaps that is why it is more cited in later days?

Maitland’s lyrics are:

[Now] what shall we do with the drunken sailor, …

Early in the morning?

Oh, chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober,

Ay hey and up she rises,

Oh, what shall we do with the drunken soldier,

Oh, put him in the guardhouse and make him bail her,

Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober,

Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober

Way hey and up she rises,

Oh, here we are nice and sober,

Oh, way hey and up she rises,

(He mixes up “make him bail her” and “till he gets sober.”)

Bullen (1914), also of the 1870s, gives this verse, with an interesting eye-dialect that looks like (?) it is supposed to represent African-American English.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor,

what shall we do with a drunken sailor,

what shall we do with a drunken sailor,

Early in de mawnin’

Hooray an up she rises,

hooray an up she rises,

hooray an up she rises,

Early in de mawnin’.

Incidentally, the melody here is the closest match to today’s versions. Perhaps even more interesting about Bullen’s presentation is his note,

…I gladly confess that my most pleasant recollections of it are connected with the Savage Club where its fine chorus used to be uplifted strenuously by the full force of the brother Savages assembled.

So, by the 1910, “Drunken Sailor” was already being sung as a popular shore song. Being well known in this context may have also contributed to its memory being kept alive in the 20th century, even if it had not often been attested in the 19th.

Taking stock of what we have up to this point, the consistent and (if I may) authentic lines appear to be exactly those of Whall:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?...

Put him in the long-boat and make him bale her…

What shall we do with a drunken soldier…

Put him in the guardroom till he gets sober….

Davis and Tozer ventured a little beyond, with,

Hoist him up in a running bowline,

Put him polishing the brass work,

I’d stop his grog and keep him sober,

The pattern, then, seems to be that one asks what shall be done with a given person (e.g. “drunken sailor” or “drunken soldier”), followed by the answer of what to do with that person. Stan Hugill, in Shanties from the Seven Seas, states that one might also ask such questions as what should be done with “The Queen o’ Sheba” or with “the Virgin Mary.” Only Davis and Tozer’s, so far, suggests a pattern in which one continues on enumerating what should be done to the sailor—and though their verses sound authentic enough, we know that they frequently extrapolated verses according to need and fancy. Is “Drunken Sailor” really about listing punishments?

Sharp (1914) collected the chanty from James Tucker, who seems to have been a sailor of the 1900s or later. He sang,

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor

Early in the morning?

Way ay and up she rises,

Way ay and up she rises,

Way ay and up she rises

Early in the morning.

Put him in the long-boat till he gets sober.

Keep him there and make him bail her.

So, Tucker has used the regulation verses plus one more that might seem to be extending the punishment theme—though it is really just one of the two variations of the “longboat” response (i.e. “bail her” or “till he gets sober”). Not entirely convincing.

I’d argue that the paradigm shifts with Terry’s (1921) presentation. He gives it for hand over hand hauling, taken from Sir Walter Runciman.

1. What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor

Early in the morning?

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises

Early in the morning.

2. Put him in the long-boat until he's sober. (thrice)

3. Pull out the plug änd wet him all over. (thrice)

4. Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him. (thrice)

5. Heave him by the leg in a running bowlin'. (thrice) [Similar to a Davis/Tozer verse]

6. Tie him to the taffrail when she's yard-arm under. (thrice)

The melody exactly matches Bullen’s, i.e. what people also sing nowadays. We know that it is Terry’s collection that served as a source for many of the early commercial recordings and popular performances. Could this have set a new tone for performances?

The game, in the revival era, seems to be to think of as many punishments for the sailor as possible. Whether this was or wasn’t the paradigm in the sailing ship days may be a moot issue, because evidently very few verses were ever needed to get the job done—those jobs being: stamp and go (to raise yards), hand over hand (for lighter yards), or hauling on braces. It would seem, however, that the newer job mentioned by Maitland—scrubbing the bottom of an iron ship—might have needed more time, which would call for more verses.

Popular verses in the revival include a cutesy one (which doesn’t sound like much of a punishment, IMO): “Shave his belly with a rusty razor.” I’ve not seen this in the documentation of actual sailors’ singing, except for this line from one of JM Carpenter’s informants, George Simpson, in the 1920s:

Shave his chin with a red hot rizor.

Hugill’s variation of this sounds more fierce:

Scrape the hair off his chest with a hoop-iron razor.

I’d don’t recall where I read it, but supposedly this involved using a ring such as that goes around/holds together barrels, sharpening it, and dragging a person through it. However, Hugill does not give a specific source for this and some of his other punishment lyrics. Several of them are obviously culled from Terry, and it’s impossible to say whether the others were sung in tradition or whether they were extrapolated by Hugill or his contemporaries. I guess I’m not convinced whether this string of sailor punishments was the common way of singing it “back in the day.”

Another popular revival lyric, of note, is

Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter…

An explanation of this (urban legend?) is that “captain’s daughter” was euphemism for the cat o’ nine tails, i.e. it meant a beating. But this has not been confirmed, and the line does not appear in the historical record AFAIK.

There was some discussion of this over on the Mudcat Café in February 2011, in which “Lighter” mentions that he previously noted having first heard the line on one of Oscar Brand’s radio shows in 1967 or so. On further reflection, he stated that what he probably actual remembers is Oscar Brand mentioning (although not singing) "What shall we do with the captain's daughter?" This is entirely in line with the paradigm of “What shall we do with X?”, and it’s also suggestive of bawdy or obscene lines that Hugill indicates might have been sung. If this is the case, there is no need to read into “captain’s daughter” as a euphemism.

A study of popular recorded versions may be necessary to sort this out! (Not my field, really.)

Perhaps the real question is: what is the answer to what we shall do with the captain’s daughter?!

Hugill presented two versions. Version (A) is the usual one…except, for some reason, the key signature puts it in Mixolydian mode. Perhap that is a mistake. I treated it as one! My recording was an international collaboration with others on YouTube. My idea was that, because this song is so “played out,” for this video, I should do something special. And, because it is a familiar song, it was a great one with which to get others interested in the project.

I dunno where his Version (B) came from, but it’s different! Only appears in the unabridged edition.

Lastly, there is the issue of the “earl-eye” pronunciation. Hugill states that it was “always” pronounced that way. But—guess what?—I don’t see the other authors making any note of that. Hmm.